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Document

Say Czolgosz Was Sane

Result of Doctors’ Examination into the Assassin’s Mental Condition
Is Made
Public—Was an Intelligent Product of Anarchy.

Buffalo, Nov. 2.—Drs. Fowler, Crego and Putnam,
the specialists who were requested by District Attorney Penney to examine into
the mental condition of Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin of the president, have
made public their report, in which they state as the result of frequent examinations
of Czolgosz, of the report of his watchers and his behavior in court, that they
have “concluded that he was sane at the time he planned the murder, when he
shot the president and when he was on trial.”
His first examination was but a few hours after
the commission of the crime and while he was still uninformed of the fate of
the victim. During the first three examinations Czolgosz answered questions
unhesitatingly. After that, however, he became more cautious and less communicative.
He had a common school education, the reports say, and read and wrote well.
During the first day’s examination he said he
planned killing the president three or four days after he came to Buffalo. The
report then recites, in Czolgosz’s own words, the assassin’s story of the murder
of President McKinley.
The sanity of Czolgosz was told “from the history
of his life as it came from him. He had been sober, industrious and law-abiding;
until he was 2 years of age he was, as others of his class, a believer in the
government of this country and of the religion of his fathers. After he cast
his first vote he made the acquaintance of anarchistic leaders, who invited
him to their meetings. He was a good listener, and in a short time he adopted
their theories.
“He was consistent in his adherence to anarchy.
He did not believe in government, therefore he refused to vote. He did not believe
in marriage, because he did not believe in law. He killed the president because
he was ruler and Czolgosz believed that all rulers were tyrants; to kill a ruler
would benefit the people. He refused a lawyer because he did not believe in
law, lawyers or courts.
“We come to the conclusion that in the holding
of these views Czolgosz was sane, because these opinions were formed gradually
under the influence of anarchistic leaders and propagandists. In Czolgosz they
found a willing and intelligent tool; one who had the courage of his convictions,
regardless of personal consequences. The most careful questioning failed to
discover any hallucinations of sight or hearing. He had received no special
command; he did not believe he had been especially chosen to do the deed. He
always spoke of his motive for the crime as duty; he always referred to the
anarchist’s belief that the killing of rulers was a duty.
“He never claimed the idea of killing the president
was original with him, but the method of accomplishing his purpose was his,
and that he did it alone. He is not a case of paranera [sic] because
he has not systematized delusions reverting to self, and because he is in exceptionally
good condition and has an unbroken record of good health. His capacity for labor
has always been good and equal to that of his fellows.
“These facts all tend to prove that the man has
an unimpaired mind. He has false beliefs, the result of false teaching and not
the result of disease. He is not to be classed as a degenerate, because we do
not find the stigmata to degeneration. Physically he has not a history of cruelty,
or of perverted tastes and habits. He is the product of anarchy, sane and responsible.”